A Rookidee and Friends Adventure
by Aurora555
Summary: In Galar there exists no pastime more important than battling! Droves of Pokemon gather in stadiums as they cheer on their favorite teams and fighters. Every year, a gym challenge is held in order to scout out prospective fighters and in order to determine the champion of Galar. Join Bedi, a young Rookidee, as she sets off on her own journey to take on the gym challenge.


Excitement ran across the arena - waves of cheering, the crowds undulated as if in tandem and the colors of the various spectators were laid out in dazzling combinations. The small Rookidee was overwhelmed, but she was also happy. This was one of her earliest memories. Her mother and father stood on both sides of her, though they could easily sharpen their feathers to steel, the small Rookidee comfortably nuzzled against them both. Pokemon she had never seen before, not even in her books, were surrounding her - a crimson red bird danced in the spot in front of hers, and further down, she saw a large black bird with an amazingly large beak. She could hear her parents talking but the crowd was so wild that it completely drowned out what they were saying and in that way - it felt silence and yet, it was a very lively, a very not lonely silence.

"Let's get ready to introduce the challengers!" The crowd roared in response, the Rookidee's parents joined in, and so, she too chirped along. "On the home team, we have the bold, the hot, the fierce, Galar's fiery fire gym leader, Fira, the Centiskorch!" Once agreed, the crowd cheered in unison - chanting broke out for this mean-looking pokemon, it swirled in circles as if taunting his opponent. "And our away team, the spooky, the unpredictable, the otherwordly, ghost-type gym leader, Gin the Gengar!" And though much quieter, an opposing chant arose from the crowd. The Gengar bowed towards its opponent in a very sportsmanlike way.

'He's so cool!' thought the Rookidee, and she happily joined the cheers for the Gengar. On the field, the Centiskorch was joined by an Arcanine and the Gengar was joined by a Mimikyu. For exhibition matches such as this one, the two-versus-two format proved very popular for the numerous strategies that could be employed with teams of two fighting together.

A distinct chant began to break out above all others.

"Fire team, let's go! Ra, ra, ra, burn them up! Fire team, let's go!" But this only made the Rookidee more determined to cheer for the Gengar, and so she chirped with all of her might.

The referee, an excitable-looking Indeedee, walked into the sidelines. "At the count of 3, we will begin. 3, 2, 1, fight!"

Immediately, flames shot up and the small Rookidee could only reel backwards, being caught by the gentle wing of her mother.

"Oh! Fira is immediately throwing up his signature defensive style! It looks like he may want to finish this match out quickly!"

The walls served both to block in the enemy and to allow Fira and his companion to freely traverse the walls of flames. It was nothing short of an amazing technique, excelling in both offense and defense. The Gengar quickly responded in kind by taking cover inside of Mimikyu's disguise, and Mimikyu quickly moved in on Arcanine and Centiskorch to close the gap before they could use their powerful ranged attacks.

"This Mimikyu is an up and coming headstart in the ghost gym! Ghost types are known for their trickery and it looks like this match will be no different. Fira wrapped itself around the Arcanine and together they leapt back into the flames. Though it was obvious to the spectators where the fire duo had disappeared, the Mimikyu could not see through the immense wall of flames - all it could do was wait for their attack. And it did not need to wait long, for mere seconds later, a flamethrower was launched from behind the wall - as clumsy as the Mimikyu looked, it dodged the attack with ease using its large claw, and as it flipped through the air, it launched a flamethrower to where the attack had come from.

"Mimikyu follows-up with a quick thinking Mimic, but the duo are long gone from that spot! A second flamethrower hits Mimikyu squarely from behind, from the opposite side of the arena! Its disguise is burning! Mimikyu appears to be erratically launching shadow balls, this looks like a desperate situation for the ghost team!"

The fire duo move in for the kill from behind the wall of flames. Since their attack had hit both Mimikyu and Gengar, they felt a surge of confidence. Fira, the Centiskorch, casts a fire spin around its target, further trapping Mimikyu and Gengar, and Arcanine moves in for the bite.

"Oh my goodness! What's this?!"

From behind the fire duo springs Gengar and it immediately lunges at the Arcanine.

"Oh my! It appears that Gin has poisoned Arcanine! But where did he come from?!"

Though it might not have been clear to the uninformed viewer, Gengar had free reign to traverse in shadows. Despite appearances, it had never hid inside of Mimikyu's disguise, but rather his shadow - and the seemingly blind barrage of shadow balls allowed the Gengar movement from shadow ball to shadow ball.

"What a feat of acrobatics! What cunning!"

While the Arcanine was reeling from its sudden surprise attacker, the Mimikyu lunged its own claw at the Arcanine and though it had seemed to be a quick kill for the ghost side - the Arcanine caught the Mimikyu's claw in its mouth.

"What?! What reaction time despite being poisoned!" The crowd roared in amazement, this play of events had only occurred in mere seconds and yet the finesse of it was so much more than that span of time. And though the two Pokemon were locked in a stalemate, it was all too quickly ended by a fire lash from Fira on the Mimikyu, and a shadow ball from Gengar on the Arcanine - leaving only the Centiskorch and the Gengar to stare each other down. The Centiskorch quickly lashed at the Gengar and landed a hit in before the Gengar disappeared into the floor once more. And though the Gengar appeared on the Centiskorch's blindside, the Centiskorch lashed out backwards as if expecting this move.

"What prediction! No… it appears that Fira is following the burn it inflicted on the Gengar before it disappeared! This dance repeated itself, and though Gin managed to land a hit in - it wasn't long before the Gengar simply collapsed. There was a brief moment of silence before the crowd erupted. As the flames subsided the Indeedee referee stepped over and formally declared Fira and his companion the winners of this match.

"Fira, ra, ra, ra! Fira, ra, ra, ra!" The crowd chanted.

"We will allow our athletes a moment to recover. Please enjoy the midtime show in the meanwhile! On this lovely night, we will have the equally lovely Meloetta performing for us…"

Even though the young Rookidee was disappointed that the team she had been rooting for lost, she was awestruck by the display that had occurred before her eyes. She felt her mother's wing wrap around her…

"Bedi? Wake up…"

"Huh," The small Rookidee slowly opened her eyes. The sun was out in full force today, and it gleamed brilliantly like a jewel.

"It's already ten, weren't you going to set out early today?"

"W-Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" The Rookidee said groggily, almost without thinking. Though a feeling of disappointment did begin to cling to her, after all today was the day that she would set out to take on the gym challenge. The single-biggest attraction in all of Galar, maybe even the world - though that was really just how Bedi thought about it.

"You were resting so peacefully, it looked like you were having a good dream too," the mother Corviknight doted over her daughter. "I'm just sorry your father was too stubborn to give you a proper goodbye."

"It's okay," that's all Bedi could think to reply even though she was still quite cross with her father. Bediviere's father had wanted her to be a transport bird, just as the rest of her family and he would go on and on about how it was noble tradition and though she had some pretty fond memories of practicing carrying around baskets, Bedi's heart lies solely with becoming a fighter and in every waking moment of the day, her thoughts are consumed by being out there in a stadium battling others - to her that seemed much more noble and grand.

"Well, if at any point you want to come back…" Bedi's mom started.

"I know, Mom," Bedi readied her wings for takeoff but stopped herself. Bedi jumped over to her mom and wrapped her wings around her. "Thanks Mom. I'll make the both of you proud, I swear," and the Rookidee, bag in talons, headed off on the start of her adventure.


End file.
